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Gates declares war on farm animal disease

A GRANT of &dollar;28 million to combat disease in African farm animals aims to save the livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest farmers. Currently, an estimated one-quarter of all livestock in the developing world die from preventable diseases each year.

The grant was given to the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), a non-profit UK agency, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development.

The first disease to be tackled is East Coast fever, which costs Africa &dollar;200 million every year. “African governments used to make a vaccine,” says Steve Sloan of …